Salesforce Inc. gave a stronger‑than‑expected revenue forecast for the current quarter, signalling that customers are beginning to spend more on its Agentforce artificial intelligence tools even as investors remain wary about the long‑term impact of AI on legacy software makers.
The shares rose about 8% in late trading after the company’s outlook and third‑quarter results topped Wall Street estimates.
Outlook points to AI momentum
Revenue will be $11.1 billion to $11.2 billion in the quarter ending in January, above analysts’ average projection of about $10.9 billion.
Salesforce said current remaining performance obligations, a bookings gauge, should grow about 15%, beating expectations for roughly 10% and suggesting improving demand across its cloud portfolio.
The forecast folds in a recent $8 billion acquisition of data‑integration specialist Informatica, which is expected to add about 3 percentage points to near‑term revenue growth and roughly 4 percentage points to current RPO.
The deal is designed to strengthen the data plumbing behind Agentforce and related products by improving data integration, governance and quality.
Agentforce adoption accelerates
Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff said Agentforce and the company’s Data 360 offering are now “momentum drivers,” as enterprises test AI agents that can automate sales, service and marketing tasks.
Salesforce reported more than 9,500 paid Agentforce deals since launch, up from about 6,000 in the prior quarter, and said annual recurring revenue for the unit that includes AI‑focused tools reached roughly $1.4 billion in the period ended October 31.
Analysts have flagged that some customers remain in experimentation mode, amid confusion over pricing and challenges organising corporate data for AI workloads.
Still, the rapid growth of Agentforce and Data 360 ARR — more than doubling year on year — suggests Salesforce is carving out a defensible role in so‑called agentic AI despite competitive and technological uncertainty.
Results ease growth, disruption fears
Third‑quarter revenue rose about 8.6% to $10.3 billion, matching consensus, while adjusted earnings per share climbed to $3.25, comfortably ahead of the $2.86 average analyst estimate.
Current remaining performance obligations came in at $29.4 billion, topping forecasts of about $29.1 billion and offering reassurance on Salesforce’s medium‑term growth pipeline.
For the January quarter, Salesforce projected adjusted earnings of $3.02 to $3.04 a share, bracketing the $3.03 average estimate, and reiterated its full‑year adjusted operating margin target of roughly 34%.
Even after Wednesday’s after‑hours rally, the stock remains down about 29% this year as investors debate whether AI platforms could erode demand for established application vendors, a narrative the latest results may begin to challenge.
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